One would assume that a parent would know better than to lock their kids in a a car with temperature well over 90 degrees. There have been many examples of parent being prosecuted for these deaths over the course of the last few years. Yet, incredulously we see it time and time again as if the bar has not been set low enough.

Enter Cynthia Marie Randolph, a mother of two in Weatherford, Texas who became upset when her kids, Cavanaugh and Juliet Ramirez refused to get out of the car. Now mind you the children are no more than two years old. Instead of removing the children physically from the car, she decided to teach them a lesson by locking them in the car. She then proceeded to smoke marijuana and take a two hour nap while her kids slowly died of heat exhaustion.

There is a profound lack of judgement and accountability when you hear stories such as these. What kind of lesson is a two year old to glean to being locked in a car? One has to simply consider that mom didn’t want to be bothered, lit one up, and disappeared into her own world, only to be woken by the horrific counterpoint to her decision.

This is such a tragedy. It is a tragedy that didn’t need to happen. Randolph is being held on two counts of Serious Bodily Injury To A Child.

It’s a terrible story to occur this past Father’s Day but one I feel should be shared. Michael Marchalk is 37 years and the adult son of Gary Marchalk. The thing to know before we move forward is that Michael is a drug addict. I think we are all familiar with the story of an addict who can’t get past his vices and takes it out on those he/she loves. Well, Michael took it out on Gary, on Father’s Day with a baseball bat…killing his father so that he could attempt to steal money for his habit. He murdered his father, stole his wallet and car, all before he was supposed to enter a rehab facility the next day.

Michael was on the run for approximately five days when he as apprehended on the Atlantic City boardwalk. He is being charged with murder, manslaughter, robbery, theft, access device fraud and possessing instruments of crime.

Can we stop with these exorcisms? First it was the Walmart Parking lots and now it’s on a remote sandy beach, but parents thinking they can “release their child’s demons” seems like one part mental illness and another part over-active imagination.

Kimberly Felder took her eleven year old daughter to a remote beach (Centerville, CA) and proceeded to strip her, bite her, beat her with drift wood, and push sand into every orifice on her face. She was trying to rid the girl o her ‘demons’. Authorities say that in all likelihood she would have killed her daughter had it not been for a Good Samaritan who inserted himself into the situation.

John Marciel (pictured above) happened to witness the commotion and literally grappled with the mother, while on 911, to save the girl’s life. That my friends is being a hero. No matter how you slice it. According to the girl, several passer byes just ignore her screams for help, and they would have been morally responsible for her death.

I don’t think there’s much doubt in anyone who reads this story that Ms. Felder was out of her right mind. No sane person would act this way. There are several stories like this one that suggest some form of mental illness in play. But assuredly there were tell-tale signs to others before this event happened. How could it have been prevented?

Setting someone on fire because you have a score to settle, while sounding horrific, has become all too common place in domestic situations. I can think of a handful of stories over the course of the last couple of years that attest to that fact.

Matthew Davey, of Tasmania, Australia, committed grievous harm to his fiancé, Nicole Evans, when after an argument on March 24th, he doused her with an accelerant and set her alight. In committing this crime he managed to burn his own hands, but that is a trivial injury, when compared to the burns that cover over 50% of Evans’ body and the fact that she clings to life.

Evans is currently being treated at a hospital in Melbourne after being air lifted from Hobart to the more advance facility. If she is to survive this horrific incident, she will be subject to a long and arduous road to recovery.

Davey has been charged with Grievous Bodily Harm, in addition to a separate assault charge from April 2nd.

Again, I have said this before, and it seems fitting again to mention, that man’s ego can hardly handle rejection. When some men are rejected or scorned, they want to destroy what is beautiful. I do not know the circumstances of the argument, but I can wager a conjecture.

My prayers go out to Miss Evans and her family. You can donate to her recovery at this GoFundMe page.

As we are all painfully aware people will commit heinous crimes for no reason ala Steve Stephens. But as we have also come to know, people commit murder for the most inane reasons as well. This brings us to one Teresa Drum.

Teresa Drum was making a casserole dinner in late February, which evidentially wound up on the burnt side which in turn, drew the ire of her husband, Dennis Drum. Some heated words were exchanged about the dinner debacle, and in the end Mr. Drum ended up with a bullet wound in his forehead which lead to his untimely death.

Now, by her own admission Mrs. Drum had consumed seven beers during and around the time she made the dinner. And quite certainly, casseroles can burn, when cooks become innebriated. Another bi-product of consuming that much alcohol, is that people can get murdered, especially when guns get pulled.

Mrs. Drum attempted to say the husband took his own life In his ‘casserole rage’. Mr. Drum was found at the scene by police with a gun in his hand. But typically people don’t shoot themselves in the forehead during these episodes. She also sent a friend a picture of her deceased husband via text asking “What she should do?”. That picture she sent eleven minutes before the police arrived , unfortunately for her, showed no gun in his possession. She even proceeded to take a shower to clean herself before even calling police.

During the commission of dinner and the crime, two of the couple’s children were in the house, though they were not hurt.

I post a lot about stories that involve animals because it boggles my mind as to how someone can be so inhumane as to hurt and even go so far as to torture an animal. And so we one Terrence J. Clark, who in late February elected to take his mother’s Shih Tzu from the back of his car, place the dog in a plastic bag, and throw the animal in the apartment trash compactor. It wasn’t just enough for him to ‘hit-the-button-and-run’. No, he had to hit the compactor button 4 TIMES! (All of which is caught on surveillance tape).

After residents had heard the dog yelping from the compactor, they called the Fire Department for rescue. They were able to remove the pet and rush it to a local Veterinarian’s office, but dies four days later.

These stories are difficult to digest because animals cannot defend themselves against the depravity of mankind. What could the dog possible have done? What could the mother have done to prompt this reaction from her son?

Clark is being held for charges of Aggravated Animal Cruelty with $65,000 bond.